The Ohio State University attacker was identified as Abdul Razak Ali Artan, a Somali-born legal permanent resident of the U.S., according to a U.S. official wasn't authorized to discuss details of the case publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The FBI and other agencies joined the investigation.

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The details emerged after a morning of confusion and conflicting reports that began with the university issuing a series of tweets warning that there was an "active shooter" on campus near the engineering building and that students should "run, hide, fight." The warning was apparently prompted by what turned out to be police gunfire.

Numerous police vehicles and ambulances converged on the 60,000-student campus, and authorities blocked off roads. Students barricaded themselves inside offices and classrooms, piling chairs and desks in front of doors.

Ohio State Police Chief Craig Stone said that the assailant deliberately drove over a curb outside a classroom building and then got out and began attacking people with the knife. An officer who happened to be nearby because of a gas leak arrived on the scene and shot the driver in less than a minute, Stone said.

Angshuman Kapil, a graduate student, was outside the building when the car barreled onto the sidewalk.

"It just hit everybody who was in front," he said. "After that everybody was shouting, 'Run! Run! Run!'"

Student Martin Schneider said he heard the car's engine revving.

"I thought it was an accident initially until I saw the guy come out with a knife," Schneider said, adding that the man didn't say anything when he got out.

Asked at a news conference whether authorities were considering the possibility it was a terrorist act, Columbus Police Chief Kim Jacobs said: "I think we have to consider that it is."

In recent months, federal law enforcement officials have raised concerns about online extremist propaganda that encourages knife and car attacks, which are easier to pull off than bombings.

The Islamic State group has urged sympathizers online to carry out attacks in their home countries with whatever weapons are available to them.

In September, a 20-year-old Somali-American stabbed 10 people at a St. Cloud, Minnesota, shopping mall before being shot to death by an off-duty officer. Authorities said he asked some of his victims if they were Muslim. In the past few years, London and other cities abroad have also seen knife attacks blamed on extremists.

The shelter-in-place warning at Ohio State was lifted and the campus declared secure after about an hour and a half, after police concluded there was no second attacker, as rumored.

At least two people were being treated for stab wounds, four were injured by the car and two others were being treated for cuts, university officials said.

The attack came as students were returning to classes following the Thanksgiving holiday break and Ohio State's football victory over rival Michigan that brought more than 100,000 fans to campus on Saturday.

Rachel LeMaster, who works in the engineering college, said a fire alarm sounded on campus.

"There were several moments of chaos," she said. "We barricaded ourselves like we're supposed to since it was right outside our door and just hunkered down."

LeMaster said she and others were eventually led outside the building and she saw a body on the ground.

Classes were canceled for the rest of the day.

Update, 3:59 p.m. EST

Police have revealed that the suspect who drove a car into a crowd on Ohio State University’s campus and then stabbed several people with a large butcher knife on Monday morning was an 18 year-old university student. He was shot dead by police.

The suspect was Somali refugee who emigrated to the United States in 2014 as a legal permanent resident. He left Somalia in 2007 and lived in Pakistan for seven years.

The attack placed nine people in local hospitals, with one in critical condition. Ohio State University’s emergency management team warned students that an active shooter was on campus, but the suspect didn’t fire any shots.

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At least nine people were stabbed, hit by a vehicle or otherwise injured in an attack Monday morning on the Ohio State University campus, and a suspect was shot, school and hospital officials said.

Ohio State police say the attacker on campus purposely drove over a curb and into pedestrians and then got out of the vehicle and began stabbing people with a butcher knife.

Police did not immediately release the suspect's condition and gave no details on a possible motive. Hospital officials said the eight victims had non-life-threatening injuries.

The details started to emerge after a morning of confusion and conflicting reports that began with the university issuing a series of tweets warning students that there was an "active shooter" on campus near the engineering building and that they should "run, hide, fight." Numerous police vehicles and ambulances converged on the 60,000-student campus, and authorities blocked off roads.

A witness to the attacks said he initially thought the car drove over the curb into pedestrians accidentally but later realized it was intentional when a man emerged with a butcher knife.

Student Martin Schneider says he saw the attack take place Monday morning.

He says he saw the attacker hit several people with the car, then emerge swinging the knife.

Schneider says the attacker didn't say anything.

He says he heard the car's engine revving before it hit the curb because it was going pretty fast. He says he also heard yells from a frightened crowd.

The shelter-in-place warning was lifted about an hour and half later, and university spokesman Ben Johnson issued a statement that made no mention of any gunfire other than the shooting of the suspect. The injured were stabbed, hit by a vehicle or suffered other injuries, Johnson said.

Rachel LeMaster, who works in the engineering college, said a fire alarm sounded before the attack.

"There were several moments of chaos," she said. "We barricaded ourselves like we're supposed to since it was right outside our door and just hunkered down."

LeMaster said she and others were eventually led outside the building and she saw a body on the ground.

Cassidie Baker, an Ohio State senior, said she saw police or paramedics helping one person on the ground outside Watts Hall, a materials science and engineering building.

"No one really knows what is happening, other than there's an active shooter," she said.

After the active shooter warning was lifted and the university declared the scene secure, the school said all classes would be canceled for the rest of the day.

The initial tweet from the university's emergency management department went out around 10 a.m. and said: "Buckeye Alert: Active Shooter on campus. Run Hide Fight. Watts Hall. 19th and College."

"Run, hide, fight" is standard protocol for active shooter situations. It means: Run, evacuate if possible; hide, get silently out of view; or fight, as a last resort, take action to disrupt or incapacitate the shooter if your life is in imminent danger.

The university followed up with another tweet: "Continue to shelter in place in north campus area. Follow directions of Police on scene." The university asked anyone with information to call police.